does anybody have any pictures of the fort belvoir army railroad , lorton and occoquan, nswc dalhgren, nswc indian head? I used to work at belvoir as braker/engineer, and indian head as contractor, as brakerman/engineer, track worker/ would enjoy exchanging pictures

I was stationed at Belvoir in the early '90s and remember there was an article in the post newspaper, the Fort Belvoir Eagle, about the FB RR. Wished I had kept a copy. You may want to contact the Post Historian about pix...The number is (703) 806-0100.

Virginia DOT will soon begin widening heavily traveled US Route 1 which passes through Fort Belvoir underneath the former Ft Belvoir railroad bridge. Although the rails have long been removed, the ties remain in place on the bridge. In order to widen the roadway from the current 4 lanes to at least 6 lanes, the bridge and its concrete abutments will have to be demolished and removed. So, if you want any pictures of the railroad bridge across Route 1, you should take them soon, before the bridge is gone forever

Was looking at Ft. Belvoir on Google and it seems that mostof the ROW and even some lead-in trackage is still extant tothe Fort. With traffic getting worse, expecially with BRAC, itwould make sense to preserve and even reopen the rail ontothe base for the use of commuter rail since the spur is stillintact at the main line. Looks like some minor clearing of brush,rebuilidng one grade crossing and building a street-level padat the end-of-line on base would make for a great commuterstop. And they could still abandon the Rte. 1 bridge. Once again,our Gov't in its "wisdom" would prefer to abandon an existinginfrastructure and then spend $Millions to reconstruct it later...

Twenty years ago the post civil engineers said there were plans to bring in VRE service but that never amounted to anything more than talk. In August 1993 the last locomotive left and later the track from John J. Kingman Road to the south end inside the post was pulled up. Most of the track from JJK Road to the interchange is still intact but overgrown with brush and obstructed by fallen trees. I don't know why it wasn't pulled up, too. Occasionally there has been talk of extending a Metro line, such as the Blue Line, down to the post, following the old utility railway right-of-way, but such talk usually ends when funding is considered and there's no way to pay for extending and operating the line.

Unfortunately relaying the entire railroad on post is no longer possible. A gas station was built atop the former right-of-way by the intersection of Pohick Road and Gunston Road.

As part of the widening of US route 1 through Fort Belvoir, the railroad bridge across route 1 is being removed. The steel span across the highway has been taken away, and the concrete supports on either side of the bridge span will probably be demolished in the near future. The bridge was probably the most visible remaining sign of the former US Army railroad at Fort Belvoir.